CIRQUE DU ANIME
by sesshomaruluver1
Summary: Based around the book by Darren Shan but with anime people and is also a love story, story will be better than the summary makes out. Alucardoc, Alucardxoc, Narakuoc, Narakuxoc
1. INTRODUCTION

**CIRQUE DU ANIME**

**INTRODUCTION**

(A/N: ok this is my new story based around the book CIRQUE DU FREAK by DARREN SHAN, the story line will be as close to the book as possible but I will be changing and/or adding some things. One of the things I have changed is the gender of the main character as I do plan on making this a love story, also instead of one main character there will be two and their profiles will be in this introduction as well as a list on what anime character is suppose to be what character from the book.)

List of characters:

Mr. Tall – Yoko Kurama

The Wolfman – Koga

The Snake Boy – Sasuke Uchiha

Mr. Crepsley – Alucard (A/N: he will not be controlling the spider Madam Octa, but will be doing something different in the freak show. Instead I have added Naraku to be the one to control the spider.)

Rhamus Twobellies – Gluttony

Alexander Ribs – Luffy

Sive and Seersa – Sakon and Ukon

Gertha Teeth – Greed

Truska – Konan

Hans Hands – Nico Robin

(A/N: for the character who are apart of the show cirque du freak I chose anime characters who either had something similar to the book character or had an interesting ability that they use in the animes they come from. To do this I had to change the gender of some of the characters such as originally in the book Sive and Seersa were girls but the anime characters to best fit these characters were boys so yeah I changed the gender to make them fit XD)

OC's:

Name: Kaida Cross

Age: 16

Looks:-

Hair: Naturally black, layered, under layer of fringe dyed semi–permanent metallic blue, hair goes down to waist.

Eyes: medium sized light blue.

Height: 5'6"

Family: Mum, Dad, Little brother and Twin sister.

Likes: Spiders, Snakes, Music, Computer games and football.

Fears: Bones breaking, Nuns (A/N: my friend is actually scared of nuns, she says they are evil lol. Oh and if you have not guessed this character is based around my friend), the horror character Michael Myers and things being near her eyes such as pencils or pointy objects.

Name: Kurai Cross

Age: 16

Looks:-

Hair: Naturally black, layered, under layer of fringe dyed semi–permanent metallic red, hair goes down to waist.

Eyes: Large, innocent looking light blue.

Height: 5'6"

Family: Mum, Dad, Little brother and Twin sister.

Likes: Bats, Snakes, Music, Computer games and football.

Fears: Spiders, Clowns and China dolls (well dolls in general really but manly china dolls).

(A/N: well there's the introduction, I should be writing chapter one soon, also there is another OC that will be in the story but they will be described in the actually chapters. Please review I would like to know what you think of my idea for this story, thanks. Mata ne (see you later)).


	2. Chapter 1

**CIRQUE DU ANIME**

**CHAPTER ONE**

"Talking"

_Thinking_

Emphasis 

_Point of view_

If this was a made-up story, it would begin at night, with a storm blowing and owls hooting and rattling noises under the bed. But this is a real story, so we have to begin where it really started.

It started in a toilet.

_Kurai_

I was in the toilet at school, sitting down, humming a song. I had my trousers on. I'd come in near the end of English class, feeling sick. My teacher, Mr Dalton, is great about things like that. He's smart and knows when you're faking and when you're being serious. He took one look at me when I raised my hand and said I was ill, then nodded his head and told me to make for the toilet.

"Throw up whatever's bugging you, Kurai," he said, "then get your behind back in here."

I wish every teacher was as understanding as Mr Dalton, although a lot of teachers normally believe me when I say I'm ill probably because my eyes make me look so innocent.

In the end, I didn't get sick, but still felt queasy, so I stayed on the toilet. I heard the bell ring for the end of class and everybody came rushing out on their lunch break. I wanted to join them but knew Mr Dalton would give out if he saw me in the yard so soon. He doesn't get mad if you trick him but he goes quiet and won't speak to you for ages, and that's almost worse than being shouted at.

So there I was, humming, watching my watch, waiting. Then I heard someone calling my name.

"Kurai! Hey, Kurai! Have you fallen in or what?"

I grinned. It was Sophie Leopard, one of mine and my sisters best friends, our other best friend was Sophie's twin brother Steve. Sophie and Steve's real surname was Leonard, but everyone called them Leopard. And not because the names sound alike. Sophie and Steve used to be what mine and Kaida's mum calls "a wild child". They raised hell wherever they went, got into fights, stole in shops. One day – they were still in pushchairs – they had found sharp sticks and prodded passing men and women with them (no prizes for guessing where they stuck them!).

They were feared and despised everywhere they went. But not by me or Kaida. We've been their best friends since Montessori, when we first met. Our mum says me and Kaida were drawn to Sophie and Steve's wildness, but I just thought they were great people to be with, as did Kaida. Steve and Sophie both had fierce tempers, and threw scary tantrums when they lost it, but me and Kaida simply ran away or hid when that happened and came back again when they'd calmed down.

Steve and Sophie's reputation had softened over the years – their mum took them to see a lot of good counsellors who taught them how to control themselves – but they were still a minor legend in the schoolyard and not people to be messed with, even if you were bigger and older than them.

"Hey, Sophie," I called back. "I'm in here." I hit the door so she'd know which one I was behind.

She hurried over, I heard two pairs of footsteps so knew someone else was with her, and I opened the door and saw my twin sister Kaida with her. They both smiled when they saw me sitting down with my trousers on. "Did you puke?" Sophie asked.

"No," I said.

"Do you think you're gonna?" Kaida asked.

"Maybe," I said. Then I leaned forward all of a sudden and made a sick noise. Bluurgh! But Sophie leopard and my sis Kaida knew me to well to be fooled.

"Give my boots a polish while you're down there," Sophie said, and laughed when I pretended to spit on her shoes and rub them with a sheet of toilet paper.

"Did I miss anything in class?" I asked, sitting up.

"Nah," Kaida said. "The usual crap."

"Did you do your history homework?" I asked.

"It doesn't have to be done until tomorrow, does it?" Sophie asked, getting worried. Sophie's always forgetting about homework, just like her brother.

"The day after tomorrow," Kaida told her.

"Oh," she said relaxing. "Even better. I thought…" she stopped and frowned. "Hold on," she said. "Today's Thursday. The day after tomorrow would be…"

"Got you!" both me and Kaida yelled, punching her on her shoulders.

"Ow!" she shouted. "That hurt." She rubbed one of her arms but I could tell she wasn't really hurt. "Are you coming out?" Sophie asked then.

"I thought I'd stay in here and admire the view," I said, leaning back on the toilet seat.

"Quit messing," Sophie said. "We were five-one down when we came in. We're probably six or seven down now. We need you."

She was talking about football. We play a game every lunchtime. My team normally wins but we'd lost a lot of our best players. Dave Morgan broke his leg. Sam White transferred to another school when his family moved. And Danny Curtain had stopped playing football in order to spend lunch hanging out with Sheila Leigh, the girl he fancies. Idiot!

I'm one of our best full-forward. There are better defenders and midfielders, and Tommy Jones is the best goalkeeper in the whole school. But me and Kaida are the only ones who can stand up front and score four or five times a day without fail.

"Ok," I said standing. "I'll save you. I've scored a hat trick everyday this week. It would be a pity to stop now."

We passed some other girls – smoking around the sinks – and hurried to my locker so I could change into my trainers. I use to have a great pair, which I won in a writing competition. But the laces snapped a few months ago and the rubber along the sides started to fall off. And then my feet grew! The pair I have now are ok but they're not the same.

We were eight-three down when me and Kaida got on the pitch. It wasn't a real pitch, just a long stretch of yard with painted goal posts at either end. Whoever painted them was a right idiot. He put the crossbar too high at one end and too low at the other.

"Never fear the Cross twins are here" me and Kaida said together as we ran onto the pitch. A lot of players laughed or groaned, but I could see my team mates picking up and our opponents growing worried.

Me and Kaida made a great start and scored two goals inside a minute, me scoring one and Kaida the other. It looked like we might come back to draw or win. But time ran out. If me and Kaida had of arrived earlier we'd have been ok but the bell rang just as we were hitting our stride, so we lost nine-seven.

As we were leaving the pitch, Alan Morris ran into the yard, panting and red-faced. They're mine and Kaida's four best friends: Steve and Sophie Leopard, Tommy Jones and Alan Morris. We must be the oddest seven people in the world, because only two of us – Steve and Sophie – have nicknames.

"Look what I found!" Alan yelled, waving a soggy piece of paper around under our noses.

"What is it?" Tommy asked, trying to grab it.

"It's—" Alan began, but stopped when Mr Dalton shouted at us.

"You seven! Inside!" he roared.

"We're coming, Mr Dalton!" Steve roared back. Steve and Sophie are Mr Dalton's favourites and they get away with stuff the rest of us couldn't do. Like when Steve uses swear words sometimes in his stories. If I put in some of the words Steve has, I'd have been kicked out long ago.

But Mr Dalton has a soft spot for Sophie and Steve, because they're special. Sometimes they're brilliant in class and get everything right, while other times they can't even spell their own names. Mr Dalton says they're a bit of an idiot savant, which means they're stupid geniuses!

Anyway, even though they're Mr Dalton's pets, not even Steve or Sophie can get away with turning up late for class. So whatever Alan had, it would have to wait. We trudged back to class, sweaty and tired after the game, and began our next lesson.

Little did me or Kaida know that Alan's mysterious piece of paper was to change our lives forever.

_Kaida_

We had Mr Dalton again after lunch, for history. We were studying World War II. Me and Kurai weren't too keen on it, but Steve and Sophie thought it was great. They loved anything to do with killing and war, although me and Kurai didn't mind the whole killing thing, we just didn't like war. Steve often said he wanted to be mercenary soldier – one who fights for money – when he grew up. And he meant it!

We had maths after history, one of my best classes and one of Kurai's worst, and – incredibly – Mr Dalton for a third time! Our usual maths teacher was off sick, so others had been filling in for him as best they could all day.

Steve and Sophie were in seventh heaven. Their favourite teacher, three classes in a row! It was the first time we'd had Mr Dalton for maths, so Steve and Sophie started showing off, telling him where we were in the book, explaining some of the trickier problems as though speaking to a child. Mr Dalton didn't mind. He was use to Steve and Sophie and exactly how to handle them.

Normally Mr Dalton runs a tight ship – his classes are fun but we always come out of them having learned something – but he wasn't very good at maths. He tried hard but we could tell he was in over his head, and while he was busy trying to come to grips with things – his head buried in the maths book, Steve and Sophie by his side making "helpful" suggestions – the rest of us began to fidget and talk softly to each other and pass notes around.

Me and Kurai sent a note to Alan, asking to see the mysterious piece of paper he'd brought in. He refused at first to pass it around, but we kept sending notes and finally he gave in. Tommy sits just two seats over from him, so he got it first. He opened it up and began studying it. His face lit up while he was reading and his jaw slowly dropped. When he passed it on to me and Kurai, she sits right next to me so she to could read what was on the paper – having read it three times – we soon saw why.

It was a flyer, an advertising pamphlet for some sort of travelling circus. There was a picture of a wolf's head and a bat at the top. The wolf had its mouth open and saliva was dripping from its teeth. At the bottom were pictures of a spider and a snake, and they looked vicious too.

Just beneath the wolf, in big red capital letters, were the words:

**CIRQUE DU FREAK**

Underneath that, in smaller writing:

**FOR ONE WEEK ONLY – CIRQUE DU FREAK!!**

**SEE:**

**SAKON AND UKON – THE TWISTING TWINS!**

**THE SNAKE-BOY! THE WOLF MAN! GREED!**

**NARAKU AND ALUCARD AND THEIR PREFORMING PETS – MADAM OCTA AND COUNT DRACU!**

**MONKY. D. LUFFY! THE PAPER WOMAN! NICO ROBIN!**

**GLUTTONY – WORLDS FATTEST MAN!**

Beneath all that was an address where you could buy tickets and find out where the show was playing. And right at the bottom, just above the pictures of the snake and spider:

**NOT FOR THE FAINT-HEARTED!**

**CERTAIN RESERVATIONS APPLY!**

"Cirque Du Freak?" me and Kurai muttered softly to ourselves. Cirque was French for circus… Circus of Freaks! Was this a freak show?! It looked like it.

We began reading the flyer again, immersed in the drawings and descriptions of the performers. In fact, we were so immersed, we forgot about Mr Dalton. We only remembered him when we realised the room was silent. We looked up, and saw Steve and Sophie standing alone at the head of the class. They stuck out their tongues at us and grinned. Feeling the hairs on the back of my neck prickle, I'm sure Kurai got the same feeling, we stared over our shoulders and there was Mr Dalton, standing behind us, reading the flyer, lips tight.

"What is this?" he snapped, snatching the paper from my hands.

"It's an advert, sir," Kurai answered.

"Where did you get it?" he asked. He looked really angry. I'd never seen him this worked up. "Where'd you get it?" he asked again.

I licked my lips nervously, I could see Kurai twisting a bit of her hair from the corner of my eye. I didn't know how to answer. Neither me nor Kurai were going to drop Alan in the soup – and we knew he wouldn't own up himself: even Alan's best friends know he's not the bravest in the world – but my mind was stuck in low gear and neither me nor Kurai could think of a reasonable lie. Luckily, Steve stepped in.

"Sir, it's mine and my sisters," he said.

"Yours?" Mr Dalton blinked slowly.

"We found it near the bus stop, sir," Sophie said. "Some old guy threw it away. We thought it looked interesting, so we picked it up. We were going to ask you about it later, at the end of class."

"Oh." Mr Dalton tried not to look flattered but I could tell he was. "That's different. Nothing wrong with an inquisitive mind. Sit down Steve, Sophie." Steve and Sophie sat. Mr Dalton stuck a bit of Blu-Tack on the flyer and pinned it to the blackboard.

"Long ago," he said, tapping the flyer, "there use to be real freak shows. Greedy con men crammed malformed people in cages and –"

"Sir, what's malformed mean?" somebody asked.

"Someone who doesn't look ordinary," Mr Dalton said. "A person with three arms or two noses; somebody with no legs; somebody very short or very tall. The con men put these poor people – who were no different to you or me, except in looks – on display and called them freaks. They charged the public to stare at them, and invited them to laugh and tease. They treated the so called "freaks" like animals. Paid them little, beat them, dressed them in rags, never allowed them to wash."

"That's cruel, sir," Delaina Price – a girl near the front – said.

"Yes," he agreed. "Freak shows were cruel, monstrous creations. That's why I got angry when I saw this." He tore down the flyer. "They were banned years ago, but every so often you'll hear a rumour that they're still going strong."

"Do you think the Cirque Du Freak is a real freak show?" I asked.

Mr Dalton studied the flyer again, then shook his head. "I doubt it," he said. "probably just a cruel hoax. Still," he added, "if it was real, I hope nobody here would dream of going."

"Oh, no, sir" we all said quickly.

"Because freak shows were terrible," he said. "They pretended to be like proper circuses but they were cesspits of evil. Anybody who went to one would be just as bad as the people running it."

"You'd have to be really twisted to want to go to one of those, sir," Steve agreed. And then he and Sophie looked at me and Kurai, winked, and Steve mouthed the words: "We're going!"

(A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter, if you have read the book you will know that for this one chapter I used the first two chapters from the book, I did this to make it longer and so it would be easier to have both Kurai and Kaida have a point of view. Please review and tell me if this chapter was good or bad, thanks. Mata ne)


	3. Chapter 2

**CIRQUE DU ANIME**

**CHAPTER 2**

(A/N: will typing this part I realised I had made a mistake in the first chapter, when I said that there were seven people, I was wrong there are only six XD sorry)

"Talking"

_Thinking_

Emphasis

_Point of view_

_Kaida_

Steve persuaded Mr Dalton to let him keep the flyer. He said he wanted it for his bedroom wall. Mr Dalton wasn't going to give it to him but then changed his mind. He cut off the address at the bottom before handing it over.

After school, the six of us – me, Kurai, Steve, Sophie, Alan Morris and Tommy Jones – gathered in the yard and studied the glossy flyer.

"It's got to be a fake," Kurai said.

"Why?" Alan asked.

"They don't allow freak shows any more," I told him. "Wolf men and snake-boys were outlawed years ago. Mr Dalton said so."

"It's not a fake" Alan insisted.

"Where'd you get it?" Tommy asked.

"I stole it," Alan said softly. "It belongs to my big brother."

Alan's big brother was Tony Morris, who used to be the schools biggest bully until he got thrown out. He's huge and mean and ugly.

"You stole from Tony?!?" me and Kurai gasped.

"Have you got a death wish?" Sophie asked.

"He won't know it was me," Alan said. "He had it in a pair of trousers that mum threw in the washing machine. I stuck a black piece of paper in when I took this out. He'll think the ink got washed off."

"Smart," Steve and Sophie nodded.

"Where did Tony get it?" I asked

"There were two guys passing them out in an ally," Alan said. "Two of the circus performers, Alucard and Naraku."

"The ones with the pets?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah," Alan answered, "only they didn't have them with them. It was night and Tony was on his way back from the pub."

Tony's not old enough to get served in a pub, but hangs around older guys who buy drinks for him. "Naraku handed the paper to Tony and told him they're a travelling freak show who put on performances in towns and cities across the world. He said you had to have a flyer to buy tickets and they only give them to people they trust. You're not suppose to tell anyone else about the show. I only found out because Tony was in high spirits – the way he gets when he drinks – and couldn't keep his mouth shut."

"How much are the tickets?" Sophie asked.

"Fifteen pounds each," Alan said.

"Fifteen pounds!" we all shouted.

"Nobody's going to pay fifteen pounds to see a bunch of freaks!" Steve snorted.

"I would," me and Kurai said.

"Me too," Tommy agreed.

"And me," Alan added.

"Sure," Sophie said, "but we don't have fifteen pounds to throw away. So it's academic, isn't it?"

"What does academic mean?" Alan asked.

"It means we can't afford the tickets, so it doesn't matter if we would buy them or not," Steve explained. "It's easy to say you would but something if you know you can't."

"How much do we have?" Alan asked.

"Tuppence ha'penny," Kurai laughed. It was something our dad often said.

"Mr Dalton didn't think too much of it," Alan said.

"That's what I mean," Tommy said. "If sir doesn't like it, it must be super. Anything that adults hate is normally brilliant."

"Are we sure we don't have enough?" I asked. "Maybe they have discounts for children."

"I don't think children are allowed in," Alan said, but he told us how much he had anyway. "Five pounds seventy."

"I've got twelve pounds exactly," Steve said.

"I've got six pounds," Sophie said.

"I have six pounds eighty-five pence," Tommy said.

"I have eight pounds twenty-five," I said.

"And I have nine pounds forty," Kurai said.

"That's more than forty pounds in all," I said, adding it up in my head. "We get our pocket money tomorrow. If we pool our—"

"But the tickets are nearly sold out," Alan interrupted. "The first show was yesterday. It finishes Tuesday. If we go, it'll have to be tomorrow night or Saturday, because our parents won't let us out any other night. The guy who gave Tony the flyer said the tickets for both those nights were almost gone. We'd have to buy them tonight."

"Well, so much for that," Kurai said putting on a brave face.

"Maybe not," Steve said.

"Our mum keeps a wad of money in a jar at home. We could borrow some and put it back when we get our pocket money," Sophie said.

"You mean steal?" I asked.

"We mean borrow," Steve snapped. "It's only stealing if you don't put it back. What do you say?"

"How would we get the tickets?" Tommy asked. "It's a school night. We wouldn't be let out."

"We can sneak out," Steve said, pointing to him and his sister. "We'll buy them."

"But Mr Dalton snipped off the address," Kurai reminded them. "How will you know where to go?"

"I memorized it," Sophie grinned. "Now, are we gonna to stand here all night making up excuses, or are we going gonna go for it?"

We all looked at each other, then – one by one – nodded silently.

"Right," Steve said. "We hurry home, grab our money, and meet back here. Tell your parents you forgot a book or something. We'll lump the money together and we'll add the rest from the pot at home."

"What if you can't steal – I mean, borrow the money?" Kurai asked.

Steve and Sophie shrugged.

"Then the deals off. But we don't know unless we try. Now: hurry!" Sophie said.

With that, they sprinted away. Moments later, making up our minds, Tommy, Alan, Kurai and me ran too.

_Kurai_

The freak show was all I could think about that night, and I bet it was all Kaida could think about too. I tried forgetting it but couldn't, not even when I was watching my favourite TV shows with Kaida. It sounded so weird: a snake-boy, a Wolf Man, performing pets. Me and Kaida were especially excited about the pets, and keep trying to guess what they would be.

Mum and dad didn't notice anything was up, but Jack did. Jack is mine and Kaida's younger brother. He can be a bit annoying but most of the time he's cool. He doesn't run to mum telling tales if me and Kaida misbehave, and he knows how to keep a secret.

"What's wrong with you two?" he asked after dinner. We were alone in the kitchen, washing up.

"Nothing's wrong," me and Kaida said.

"Yes there is," he said. "You two have been behaving funny all night."

I knew he'd keep asking until he got the truth, so we told him about the freak show.

"It sounds great," he agreed, "but there's no way you two would get in."

"Why not?" Kaida asked.

"I bet they don't let children in. It sounds like a grown-up sort of show."

"They probably wouldn't let a brat like you in," I said nastily, "but me, Kaida and the others would be ok." That upset him, so I apologised. "I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't mean that. I'm just annoyed because you're probably right. Jack, me and Kaida would give anything to go!"

"Why don't you use your make-up kits?" he asked. "You can draw on wrinkles and stuff. It'd make you look older."

Me and Kaida smiled and gave him a big hug, which is something we don't do very often. "Thanks, bro," we said.

"But it's ok. If we get in, we get in. If we don't, we don't." Kaida said.

We didn't say much after that. We finished drying and hurried into the TV room. Dad got back home a few minutes later. He works on building sites all over the place, so he's often late. He's grumpy sometimes but was in a good mood that night and swung Jack around in a circle.

"Anything exciting happen today?" he asked, after he'd said hello to mum and gave her a kiss.

"We scored another hat trick at lunch," me and Kaida told him.

"Really?" he asked. "That's great. Well done."

We turned the TV down while dad was eating. He likes peace and quiet when he eats, and often asks us questions or tells us about his day at work.

Later, mum went to her room to work on her stamp albums. She's a serious stamp collector. Me and Kaida used to collect stamps too, when we were younger and more easily amused, although to be quite honest we still are quite easily amused.

We popped up to see if she had any new stamps with exotic animals, spiders – for Kaida – or bats – for me – on them. She hadn't. While we were there, we sounded her out about freak shows.

"Mum," I said, "have you ever been to a freak show?"

"A what?" she asked, concentrating on the stamps.

"A freak show," Kaida repeated. "With paper women and wolf men and snake-boys."

She looked up at us and blinked. "A snake-boy?" she asked. "What on Earth is a snake-boy?"

"It's a…" I stopped when I realised I didn't know. "Well, that doesn't matter," I said.

"Have you ever been to one?" Kaida asked.

She shook her head. "No they're illegal."

"If they weren't," I asked, "and one came to town, would you go?"

"No," she said, shivering. "Those sorts of things frighten me. Besides, I don't think it would be fair on the people in the show."

"What do you mean?" Kaida asked.

"How would you two like it," she said, "if you were stuck in a cage for people to look at?"

"We're not freaks!" we said huffily.

"I know," she laughed, and kissed the tops of our heads. "You're my little angels."

"Mum, don't!" we grumbled, wiping our foreheads with our hands.

"Silly," she smiled. "But imagine if you two were physically joined at the hip or had one pair of legs with two upper bodies, and somebody stuck you on show for people to make fun of. You wouldn't like that, would you?"

"No," we said, shuffling our feet.

"Anyway, what's all this about a freak show?" she asked. "have you two been staying up late, watching horror films?"

"No," we said.

"Because you know your dad doesn't like you two watching—"

"We weren't staying up late, ok?" I shouted. It's really annoying when parents don't listen.

"Ok, Miss Grumpy," she said. "No need to shout. If you don't like my company, go downstairs and help your farther weed the garden."

We didn't want to go, but mum was upset that I'd shouted at her, so we left and went down to the kitchen. Dad was coming in from the back and spotted us.

"So this is where you two have been hiding," he chuckled. "Too busy to help the old man tonight?"

"We were on our way" Kaida told him.

"Too late," he said, taking off his wellies. "I'm finished."

We watched him putting on his slippers. He had huge feet. He takes size 12 shoes! When we were younger, he used to stand us one on each foot and walk us around. It was like being on a long skateboard.

"What are you doing now?" I asked.

"Writing," he said. Our dad has pen pals all over the world, in America, Australia, Russia and China. He says he likes to keep in touch with his global neighbours, though we think it's just an excuse to go to his study for a nap!

Jack was playing with Lego and stuff. We asked if he wanted to come to our room for a game of bed-tennis using a sock for a ball, and shoes for rackets, but he said he was too busy building a city.

We went to our room and dragged down our mangas. We have loads of cool mangas, Vampire knight, D. Gray-man – Kaida's favourite –, Zombie-Loan and When They Cry. When They Cry is my favourite. It's a murder/mystery/horror with a different story each volume. Some of the When They Cry mangas are quite scary but that's why I love them.

We spent the rest of the night reading mangas and putting them in order. We used to swap with Tommy, who has a huge collection, but he kept spilling drinks on the covers and crumbs between the pages, so we stopped.

Most nights we go to bed by ten, but mum and dad forgot about us, and we stayed up until nearly half-past ten. Then dad saw the light in our room and came up. He pretended to be cross but he wasn't really. Dad doesn't mind too much if we stay up late. Mum's the one who nags us about that.

"Bed," he said, "or I'll never be able to wake you two in the morning."

"Just a minute, dad," I told him.

"While we put our mangas away and brush our teeth," Kaida said.

"Ok," he said, "but make it quick."

We stuck the mangas into their boxes and stuffed them back on the shelves over our beds.

We put on our pyjamas and went to brush our teeth. We took our time, brushing slowly, and it was almost eleven when we got into bed, smiling. I felt very tired and knew I'd fall asleep in a couple of seconds, I'm pretty sure Kaida felt the same. The last thing I thought about – and I'm sure it was Kaida's last thought as well – was the Cirque Du Freak. I wondered what a snake-boy looked like, and how a woman could be made of paper, and what Nico Robin and Greed did. Most of all I dreamed about the performing pets.

(A/N: I hope you liked this chapter of Cirque Du Anime, the idea of the having one pair of legs but two upper bodies came from the film Big Fish, more specifically the Chinese twins who where connected at the hip but only had one pair of legs. Please review and tell me what you think, thanks. Mata ne.)


	4. Chapter 3

**CIRQUE DU ANIME**

**CHAPTER 3**

"Talking"

_Thinking_

Emphasis

_Point of view_

_Kurai_

The next morning, Tommy, Alan, Kaida and me waited outside the gates for Steve and Sophie, but there was no sign of them by the time the bell rang for class, so we had to go in.

"I bet they're dossing," Tommy said. "They couldn't get the tickets and now they don't want to face us."

"Steve and Sophie aren't like that," I said.

"I hope they bring the flyer back," Alan said. "Even if we can't go, I'd like to have the flyer. I'd stick it up over my bed and—"

"You couldn't stick it up, stupid!" Tommy laughed.

"Why not?" Alan asked.

"Because Tony would see it," Kaida said.

"Oh yeah," Alan said glumly.

Me and Kaida were miserable in class. We had geography first, and every time Mrs Quinn asked one of us a question, we got it wrong. Normally geography's our best subject – Kaida was better at it though – because we know so much about it from when we use to collect stamps.

"Had a late night, Kurai, Kaida?" she asked when we got our fifth question wrong.

"No, Mrs Quinn," we lied.

"I think you did," she smiled. "There are more bags under your eyes than in the local supermarket!" everybody laughed at that – Mrs Quinn didn't crack jokes very often – and we did too, even though we were the butt of the joke.

The morning dragged, the way it does when you feel let down or disappointed. I spent the time imagining the freak show and talking about it with Kaida. We made-believe we were one of the freaks, and the owner of the circus was a nasty guy who whipped everybody, even when they got stuff right. All the freaks hated him, but one day, he whipped us once too often, and we turned into wolves and bit his head off! Everybody cheered and we were made the new owners.

It was a pretty good daydream, Kaida even wrote it down.

Then, a few minutes before break, the door opened and guess who walked in? Steve and Sophie! Their mother was behind them and she said something to Mrs Quinn, who nodded and smiled. Then Mrs Leonard left and Steve and Sophie strolled over to their seats and sat down.

"Where were you?" I asked in a furious whisper.

"At the dentist's," Steve said.

"We forgot to tell you we were going," Sophie said.

"What about—" Kaida started.

"That's enough, Kurai, Kaida," Mrs Quinn said. Kaida and me shut up instantly.

At break, Tommy, Alan, Kaida and me almost smothered Steve and Sophie. We were shouting and pulling at them at the same time.

"Did you get the tickets?" Kaida and I asked.

"Were you really at the dentist's?" Tommy wanted to know.

"Where's my flyer?" Alan asked.

"Patience, boys and girls, patience," Steve said, pushing us away and laughing with Sophie.

"All good things to those who wait," Sophie said.

"Come on, Steve, Sophie, don't mess around," I told them.

"Did you get them or not?" Kaida asked.

"Yes and no" they said.

"What does that mean?" Tommy snorted.

"It means we have some good news, some bad news, and some crazy news," Steve said.

"Which do you want to hear first?" Sophie asked.

"Crazy news?" Kaida and I asked, puzzled.

Steve and Sophie pulled us off to one side of the yard, checked to make sure no one was about, then began to speaking in a whisper.

"We got the money," Steve said. "And sneaked out at seven o'clock, when mum was on the phone. We hurried across town to the ticket booth, but do you know who was there when we arrived?"

"Who?" we asked.

"Mr Dalton," Sophie said. "He was there with a couple of policemen. They were dragging a small guy out of the booth – it was a really small shed, really – when suddenly there was this huge bang and a great cloud of smoke covered them all. When it cleared, the small guy had disappeared."

"What did Mr Dalton and the police do?" Alan asked.

"Examined the shed, looked around a bit, then left," Steve said.

"Did they see you?" Tommy asked.

"No," Sophie said. "We were well hidden."

"So you didn't get the tickets," I said sadly.

"We didn't say that," Steve contradicted me.

"You got them" Kaida gasped.

"We turned to leave," Steve said, "and found the small guy behind us. He was tiny, and dressed in a long cloak which covered him from head to toe. He spotted the flyer in my hand, took it, and held out the tickets. I handed over the money and—"

"You got them!" we roared delightedly.

"Yes," Steve and Sophie beamed. Then their faces fell.

"But there was a catch. We told you there was bad news, remember?" Sophie asked.

"What is it?" Kaida asked.

"He only sold us four tickets," Steve said. "We had the money for six, but he wouldn't take it. He didn't say anything, just tapped the bit on the flyer about "certain reservations", then handed us a card which said the Cirque Du Freak only sold four tickets per flyer. We offered him extra money – we had about ninety pounds in total – but he wouldn't accept it."

"He only sold you four tickets?" Tommy asked, dismayed.

"But that means…" Alan began.

"…only four of us can go," Sophie finished. Steve and Sophie looked at us grimly.

"Two of us would have to stay at home," Steve said.

_Kaida_

It was Friday evening, the end of the school week, the start of the weekend, and everybody was laughing and running home as quick as they could, delighted to be free. Except a certain miserable sixsome who hung around the schoolyard, looking like the end of the world had arrived. Their names? Steve and Sophie Leonard, Tommy Jones, Alan Morris and my sis and me, Kaida and Kurai cross.

"It's not fair," Alan moaned. "Who ever heard of a circus only letting you buy four tickets? It's stupid!"

We all agreed with him, but there was nothing we could do about it apart from stand around, stubbing the ground with our feet, looking sour.

Finally, Alan asked the question which was on everybody's mind.

"So, who gets the tickets?"

We looked at each other and shook our heads uncertainly.

"Well, Steve and Sophie have to get one," I said.

"They out in more money than the rest of us, and they went to buy them, so they have to get one, agreed?" Kurai asked.

"Agreed," Tommy said.

"Agreed," Alan said. I think he would have argued about it, except he knew he wouldn't win.

Steve and Sophie smiled and each took one of the tickets. "Who goes with us?" they asked.

"I brought in the flyer," Alan said quickly.

"Nuts to that!" I told him.

"Steve and Sophie should get to choose," Kurai said.

"Not on your lives!" Tommy laughed. "You two are their best friends. If we let them pick, they'll pick you two. I say we fight for them. I have boxing gloves at home."

"No way!" Alan squeaked. He's small and never gets into fights.

"We don't want to fight either," Kurai and I said. We're no cowards but we knew we wouldn't stand a chance against Tommy. His dad teaches him how to box properly and they have their own punching bag. He would have floored us in the first round.

"Let's pick straws for them," I said, but Tommy didn't want to. He has terrible luck and never wins anything like that.

We argued about it a bit more, until Steve and Sophie came up with an idea.

"We know what to do," Steve said, opening his school bag. He tore the two middle sheets of paper out of an exercise book and, using his ruler, carefully cut them into small pieces, each roughly the same size as the two remaining tickets. Then he got his empty lunch box and dumped the paper inside.

"Here's how it works," he said, holding up the two tickets. "I put these in, put the top on and shake it, ok?" we nodded.

"You stand side by side and I'll throw the bits of paper over your heads. Whoever gets one of the tickets wins. Me, Steve and the winners will give the other two their money back when we can afford it. Is that fair enough, or does someone have a better idea?" Sophie asked.

"Sounds good to me," I said, Kurai nodded to show she liked the idea.

"I don't know," Alan grumbled. "I'm the youngest. I'm not able to jump as high as—"

"Quit yapping," Tommy said. "I'm the smallest, and I don't mind. Besides, the ticket might come out on the bottom of the pile, float down and be in the right place for the shortest person."

"All right," Alan said. "But no shoving."

"Agreed," I said.

"No rough stuff," Kurai said.

"Agreed," Tommy nodded.

Steve put the top on the box and gave it a good long shake, and then handed it to Sophie.

"Get ready," she told us.

We stood back from Steve and Sophie and lined up in a row. Tommy and Alan were side by side, but Kurai and I kept out of the way so we'd have more room to swing both arms.

"Ok," Sophie said. "I'll throw everything in the air on the count of three. All set?" we nodded. "One" Sophie said, and I saw Alan wiping sweat from around his eyes. "Two," Steve said, and Tommy's fingers twitched. "Three!" Sophie yell, jerked off the lid and tossed the paper high up into the air.

A breeze came along and blew the bits of paper straight at us. Tommy and Alan started yelling and grabbing wildly. It was impossible to see the tickets in among the scraps of paper.

I was about to start grabbing, when all of a sudden I got an urge to do something strange. It sounded crazy, but I've always believed in following an urge or a hunch.

So what I did was, I shut my eyes, stuck out my hands like a blind person, and waited for something magical to happen.

As I'm sure you know, usually when you try something you've seen in a movie, it doesn't work. Like if you try doing a wheelie with your bike, or making your skateboard jump up in the air. But every once in a while, when you least expect it, something clicks.

For a second I felt paper blowing by my hands. I was going to grab at them but something told me it wasn't time. Then a second later, a voice inside me yelled "NOW!"

I shut my hands really fast.

The wind dies down and the pieces of paper drifted to the ground. I opened my eyes – noticing my sister doing the same – and saw Alan and Tommy down on their knees, searching for the tickets.

"There're not here!" Tommy said.

"I can't find them anywhere!" Alan shouted.

They stopped searching and looked up at Kurai and me. We hadn't moved. We were standing still, our hands shut tight.

"What's in your hands, Kaida, Kurai?" Steve asked softly.

We stared at him and Sophie, unable to answer. It was like we were in a dream were we couldn't move or speak.

"They don't have them," Tommy said. "They can't have. They had their eyes shut."

"Maybe so," Sophie said, "but there's something in those fists of theirs."

"Open them," Alan said, giving Kurai and me a shove. "Let's see what you two are hiding."

We looked at Alan, then Tommy, then Steve and Sophie. And then very slowly, I opened my right-hand fist, Kurai opening her left-hand fist.

There was nothing there.

My heart and stomach dropped, I'm sure Kurai was feeling the same disappointment I was. Alan and Tommy started looking on the ground again, trying to find the missing tickets.

"What about your other hands?" Steve asked.

I gazed down at my left-hand fist – Kurai gazed at her right-hand fist – I'd almost forgotten about that one! Slowly, even slower than the first time, we opened our fists.

There was a piece of green paper smack-dab in the middle of our hands, but they were facing down, and since there was nothing on there backs, we had to turn it over, just to be sure. And there it was in red and blue letter, the magical name:

CIRQUE DU FREAK.

We had them. The tickets were ours. We were going to the freak show with Steve and Sophie. "YEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!" we screamed, and jumped up and down hugging each other. We'd won!

(A/N: Ok there is chapter three, the freak show starts next chapter wonder what will happen, well I don't need to wonder I know XD Hope you enjoyed this chapter please review, thanks. Mata ne)


	5. Chapter 4

CIRQUE DU ANIME

CHAPTER 4

"Talking"

_Thinking_

Emphasis

_Point of view_

_Kaida_

The tickets were for the Saturday show, which was just as well, since it gave Kurai and me a chance to talk to our parents and ask if we could stay over at Steve and Sophie's Saturday night.

We didn't tell them about the freak show, because we knew they would say no if they knew about it. I felt bad about not telling the whole truth, as did Kurai, but at the time, we hadn't really told a lie: all we'd done was keep our mouths shut.

Saturday couldn't go quickly enough for Kurai and me. We tried keeping busy, because that's how you make time pass without noticing, but we kept thinking about the Cirque Du Freak and wishing it was time to go. We were quite grumpy, which was odd for us on a Saturday, and mum was glad to see the back of us when it was time to go to Steve and Sophie's.

Jack knew we were going to the freak show and asked us to bring him back something, a photo if possible, but I told him cameras weren't allowed (it said so on the ticket) and we didn't have enough money for a T-shirt. We told him we'd buy him a badge if they had them, or a poster, but he'd have to keep it hidden and not tell mum and dad where he'd got it if they found it.

Dad dropped Kurai and me off at Steve and Sophie's at six o'clock. He asked what time we wanted to collected in the morning. We told him midday if that was ok.

"Don't watch horror movies, ok?" he said before he left. "I don't want you two coming home with nightmares."

"Oh, dad!" I groaned.

"Everyone in our class watches horror movies," Kurai said a little annoyed.

"Listen," he said, "I don't mind the old Vincent price film, or one of the less scary Dracula movies, but none of these nasty new ones, ok?"

"Ok," we promised.

"Good girls," he said, and drove off.

We hurried up to the house and rang the bell four times, which was our secret signal to Steve and Sophie. They must have been standing right inside, because they opened the door straightaway and dragged us in.

"About time," Steve growled, then pointed to the stairs. "See that hill?" he asked, speaking like a soldier in a war film.

"Yes, sir," Kurai, Sophie and I said, snapping our heels together.

"We have to take it by dawn."

"Are we using rifles or machine guns, sir?" Kurai asked.

"Are you mad?" he barked. "We'd never be able to carry a machine gun through all that mud." He nodded at the carpet.

"Rifles it is, sir," Sophie agreed.

"If we're taken," he warned us, "save the last bullet for yourself."

We started up the stairs like a small group of soldiers, firing imaginary guns at imaginary foes. It was childish, but great fun. Steve 'lost' a leg on the way and we had to help him to the top. "You may have taken my leg," he shouted from the landing, "and you may take my life, but you'll never take my country!"

It was a stirring speech. At least, it stirred Mrs Leonard, who came from the downstairs living room to see what the racket was. She smiled when she saw Kurai and me and asked if we wanted anything to eat or drink. We didn't. Steve and Sophie said they'd like some caviar and champagne, it wasn't funny the way they said it, and we didn't laugh.

Steve and Sophie don't get on with their mum. They live alone with her – their dad left when they were very young – and they're always arguing and shouting. Kurai and I don't know why. We've never asked them. There are certain things you don't discuss with your friends if they're boys or tomboy girls. If your friends are girls and not tomboys then you can talk about stuff like that, but if you're friends with a boy or tomboy girl you have to talk about computers, football, war and so on. Parents aren't cool.

"How will we sneak out tonight?" I asked in a whisper as Steve and Sophie's mum went back into the living room.

"It's ok," Steve said.

"She's going out," Sophie said, they often called her she instead of mum.

"She'll think we're in bed when she gets back," Steve said.

"What if she checks?" Kurai asked.

Sophie laughed nastily. "Enter my room without being asked? She wouldn't dare."

Kurai and I didn't like Steve or Sophie when they talked like that, but we said nothing in case they went into one of their moods. We didn't want to anything that might spoil the show.

Steve and Sophie dragged out some of their horror mangas and we read them aloud. Steve and Sophie have great mangas, which are only meant for adults. Our mum and dad would hit the roof if they knew about them!

Steve and Sophie also have loads of old magazines and books about demons and vampires and werewolves and ghosts.

"Does a stake have to be made out of wood?" Kurai asked when she'd finished reading a vampire manga.

"No," Steve said. "It can be metal or ivory, even plastic, as long as it's hard enough to go right through the heart."

"And that will kill a vampire?" Kurai asked.

"Every time," he said.

Kurai and I frowned.

"But you told us you have to cut off their heads and stuff them with garlic and toss them in the river," Kurai said.

"Some books say you have to," Sophie agreed. "But that's to make sure you kill the vampire's spirit as well as its body, so it can't come back as a ghost."

"Can a vampire come back as a ghost?" I asked, eyes wide.

"Probably not," Sophie said. "But if you had the time, and wanted to make sure, cutting off the head and getting rid of it would be worth doing. You don't want to take any chances with vampires, do you?"

"No," Kurai and I said, shivering.

"What about werewolves? Do you need silver bullets to kill them?" I asked.

"I don't think so," Steve said. "I think normal bullets can do the job. You might have to use lots of them, but they should work."

Steve and Sophie know everything there is to know about horror facts. They've read every sort of horror book there is. They say every story has at least some bit of truth in it, even if most are made up.

"Do you think the Wolf Man at the Cirque Du Freak is a werewolf?" I asked.

Steve shook his head. "From what I've read," he said, "the wolf-men in freak shows are normally just very hairy guys. Some of them are more like animals than people, and eat live chickens and stuff, but they're not werewolves. A werewolf would be no good in a show, because it can only turn into a wolf when there's a full moon. Every other night, it would be a normal guy."

"Oh," I said.

"What about the snake-boy? Do you—" Kurai started.

"Hey," Sophie laughed, "save the questions for later. The shows long ago were terrible. The owners used to starve the freaks and keep them locked up in cages and treat them like dirt. But I don't know what this one will be like. They might not even be real freaks: they might only be people in costumes."

The freak show was being held at a place near the other side of town. We had to leave not long after nine o'clock, to make sure we got there in time. We could of got a cab, except we'd used most of our pocket money to replace the cash Steve and Sophie took from their mum. Besides, it was more fun walking. It was spookier!

We told ghost stories as we walked. Steve and Sophie did most of the talking, because they know way more than Kurai and me. They were on top form. Sometimes they forget the ends of stories, or get names mixed up, but not tonight. It was better than being with Stephen King!

It was a long walk, longer than we thought, and we almost didn't make it on time. We had to run the last half-kilometre. We were panting like dogs when we got there.

The venue was an old theatre which used to show movies. Kurai and I'd passed it once or twice in the past. Steve and Sophie told us once that it was shut down because a boy fell off the balcony and got killed. They said it was haunted. We asked our dad about it, and he said it was a load of lies. It's hard sometimes to know whether you should believe the stories your dad tells you or the ones your best friend tells you.

There was no name outside the door, and no cars parked nearby, and no queue. We stopped out front and bent over until we got our breath back. Then we stood and looked at the building. It was tall and dark and covered in jagged grey stones. Lots of the windows were broken, and the door looked like a giants open mouth.

"Are you sure this is the place?" I asked, trying not to sound scared.

"This is what it says on the tickets," Steve said, and Sophie checked again, just to be sure.

"Yep, this is it," Sophie said.

"Maybe the police found out and the freaks had to move on," Kurai said. "Maybe there isn't any show tonight."

"Maybe," Steve and Sophie said.

Kurai and I looked at them and I licked my lips nervously, while Kurai twisted a bit of her hair.

"What do you think we should do?" I asked.

They stared back at Kurai and me and Steve hesitated before replying. "I think we should go in," he finally said.

"We've come this far. It'd be silly to turn back now, without knowing for sure," Sophie agreed.

"We agree," Kurai and I said, nodding. Then we gazed up at the scary building and gulped. It looked like the sort of place you saw in a horror movie, where lots of people go in but don't come out.

"Are you scared?" Kurai asked Steve and Sophie.

"No," they said, but we could hear their teeth chattering and knew they were lying.

"Are you?" Steve asked Kurai and me.

"Course not," we said. We all looked at each other and grinned. We knew we were all terrified, but at least we were together. It's not so bad being scared if you're not alone.

"Shall we enter?" Sophie asked, trying to sound cheerful.

"Might as well," I said.

We all took a deep breath, crossed our fingers, then stared up the steps (there were nine stone steps leading up to the door, each one cracked and covered with moss) and went in.

_Kurai_

We found ourselves standing in a long, dark, cold corridor. Kaida and I had our jackets on, but shivered all the same. It was freezing!

"Why is it so cold?" I asked Steve and Sophie.

"It was warm outside," Kaida continued.

"Old houses are like that," Steve told us.

We stared to walk. There was a light down by the other end, so the further in we got, the brighter it became. I was glad of that. I didn't think I could have made it otherwise: it would have been too scary!

The walls were scratched and scribbled-on, and bits of the ceiling were flaky. It was a creepy place. It would have been bad enough in the middle of the day, but this was ten o'clock, only two hours away from midnight!

"There's a door here," Sophie said and stopped. She pushed it ajar and it creaked loudly. Kaida and I almost turned and ran. It sounded like the lid of a coffin being tugged open!

Steve and Sophie showed no fear and stuck their heads in. They said nothing for a few seconds, while their eyes got use to the dark, then pulled back.

"It's the stairs up to the balcony," Steve said.

"Where the kid fell from?" Kaida asked.

"Yes," Sophie answered.

"Do you think we should go up?" I asked.

Steve shook his head. "I don't think so. It's dark up there, no sign of any sort of light. We'll try it if we can't find another way in, but I think—"

"Can I help you?" somebody said behind us, and we nearly jumped out of our skins!

We turned around quickly and the tallest man in the world was standing there, glaring at us as if we were rats. He was so tall, his head – which was covered by a hat – almost touched the ceiling. He had pale – almost white – hands and eyes that were gold, they looked like two burning fires.

"Isn't it a rather late for three young girls and a little boy like yourselves to be out and about?" he asked. His voice was deep and smooth, he spoke almost in a flirting manner, but his lips hardly seemed to move. He would have made a great ventriloquist.

"We…" Sophie began, but had to stop and lick her licks before she could continue. "We're here to see then Cirque Du Freak," she said.

"Are you?" the man nodded slowly. "Do you have tickets?"

"Yes," Steve and Sophie said, and showed theirs.

"Very good," the man muttered. Then he turned to Kaida and me and said: "How about you, Kurai, Kaida? Do you two have tickets?"

"Yes," we said, reaching into our pockets. Then we stopped dead in our tracks. _He knew our names!_ Kaida and I glanced at Steve and Sophie and they were shaking in their boots.

The tall man smiled. He had almost pure white teeth and his canines were slightly longer than normal. "My name is Kurama," he said. "I own the Cirque Du Freak."

"How did you know our friends names?" Steve asked bravely.

Kurama laughed and bent down, so he was eyeball-to-eyeball with Steve and Sophie. "I know lots of things," he said softly. "I know your names. I know where you live. I know you two don't like your mummy or your daddy." He turned to face Kaida and me and we took a step back surprised by the scent that reached our noses. His hair gave off the smell of roses. "I know you two didn't tell your parents you were coming here. And I know how you won your tickets."

"How?" Kaida and I asked. Our teeth were shaking so much, I wasn't sure if he heard us or not. If he did, he decided not to answer, because next he stood up and turned away from us.

"We must hurry," he said, beginning to walk. I thought he would take giant steps, but he didn't, he took short ones. "The show is about to begin. Everyone else is present and seated. You are late. You're lucky we didn't start without you."

He turned a corner at the end of the corridor. He was only two or three steps in front of us, but when we turned the corner, he was sitting behind a long table covered with a black cloth which reached down to the floor. He was no longer wearing his hat and we could see that he had a pair of silver fox ears on top of his head.

"Tickets, please," he said, reached out, took them, opened his mouth and put the tickets in, then chewed them to pieces and swallowed!

"Very well," he said. "You may go in now. We normally don't welcome children, but I can see you four are fine and courageous. We will make an exception."

There were two blue curtains in front of us, drawn across the end of the hall. Steve, Sophie, Kaida and me looked at each other and gulped.

"Do we walk straight on?" Sophie asked.

"Of course," Kurama said.

"Isn't there a lady with a torch?" Kaida asked, as I looked a little nervous.

He laughed. "If you want someone to hold your hand," he said, "you should have brought a babysitter!"

That made Kaida and me mad and we forgot for a moment how afraid we were. "All right," we snapped, stepping forward, surprising Steve and Sophie. "If that's the way it is…" we walked forward quickly and pushed past the curtains.

I don't know what those curtains were made of, but the felt like spider webs, which made me shiver a little. Kaida and I stopped once past. We were in a short corridor and another pair of curtains were draped across the walls a few metres in front. There was a sound behind and then Steve and Sophie were by our sides. We could hear noises on the other side of the curtains.

"Do you think it's safe?" I asked.

"I think it's safer to go forward than backwards," Sophie answered. "I don't think Kurama would like it if we turned back."

"How do you think he knew all that stuff about us?" Kaida asked.

"He must be able to read minds," Steve replied.

"Oh," Kaida and I said, and thought about that for a few seconds.

"He nearly scared the life out of me," I admitted, Kaida nodded showing she to had been scared.

"Me too," Steve and Sophie said.

Then we stepped forward.

It was a huge room. The chairs had been ripped out of the theatre long ago, but deck chairs had been set up in their place. We looked for spare seats. The entire theatre was packed, but we were the youngest ones there. I could feel people watching us and whispering.

The only spaces were in the fourth row from the front. We had to step over lots of legs to get there and people were grumbling. When we sat down, we realised they were good seats, because we were right in the middle and nobody tall was in front of us. We had a perfect view of the stage and could see everything.

"Do you think they sell popcorn?" Kaida asked.

"At a freak show," Steve snorted. "Get real! They might sell snake eggs and lizard eyes, but I'll bet anything you like they don't sell popcorn!"

The people in the theatre were a mixed bunch. Some were dressed stylishly, others in tracksuits. Some were as old as the hills, others just a few years older than Steve, Sophie, Kaida and me. Some chatted confidently to their companions and behaved as though at a football match, others sat quietly in their chairs and gazed around nervously.

What everyone shared was a look of excitement. I could see it in their eyes, the same light that was shining in Steve's, Sophie's, Kaida's and mine. We all somehow knew that we were in for something special, the like of which we'd never seen before.

Then a load of trumpets blew and the whole place went quiet. The trumpets blew for ages and ages, getting louder and louder, and every light went out until the theatre was pitch black. I began to get scared again, but it was too late to leave.

All of a sudden, the trumpets stopped and there was silence. My ears were ringing and for a few seconds I felt dizzy. Then I recovered and sat up straight in my seat.

Somewhere high up in the theatre, someone switched on a green light and the stage lit up. It looked eerie! For about a minute nothing else happened. Then two men came on, pulling a cage. It was on wheels and covered with what looked like a huge bearskin rug. When they got to the middle of the stage they stopped, dropped the ropes and ran back into the wings.

For a few seconds more – silence. Then the trumpets blew again, three short blasts. The rug came flying off the cage and the first freak was revealed.

That was when the screaming began.

(A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter, for anyone who is confused as to why I called Yoko, Kurama, it is because Yoko's full name is Yoko Kurama and in Cirque Du Freak you don't know Mr Talls first name, you only find out his first name in the second book. So I decided to follow the book and use Yoko's last name instead of his first, also when describing the characters, I will be using anime descriptions not the ones in the book, that also goes for some of the information about the characters I will be using the anime information more than the books. Mata ne)


	6. Chapter 5

**CIRQUE DU ANIME**

**CHAPTER 5**

"Talking"

_Thinking_

Emphasis

_Point of view_

_Kurai_

There was no need for the screaming. The freak was quite shocking, but he was chained up inside the cage. I think the people who screamed did it for fun, the way people scream on a roller coaster, not because they were actually afraid.

It was the Wolf Man. He didn't really look like anything I had expected, I had expected him to be ugly and be covered in hair. But he was almost the complete opposite; he was in fact quite good looking although looked very dangerous the way he was chained up. He had long hair tied up in a pony tail, and a head band around his fore head to keep his fringe out of his face – the band looked like it was made out of wolf fur – he wore a chest plate that was connected to shoulder pads that were also made from wolf fur. A fur kilt and fur arm, wrist and leg bands, from what I could see his eyes were an intense blue and as he shifted to stand from his sitting position I saw he had a tail!

He shook the bars of the cage and roared. It was pretty frightening. Lots more people screamed when he roared. Kaida and I nearly screamed ourselves, except we didn't want to look like babies.

The Wolf Man went on shaking the bars and jumping about, before calming down. When he was sitting on his backside, the way dogs do, Kurama walked on and spoke.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, and even how his voice was low and deep, everybody could hear what he was saying, "welcome to the cirque du freak, home of the world's most remarkable human beings. We are an ancient circus," he went on. "We have toured for five hundred years, bringing the grotesque to generation after generation. Our line-up has changed many times, but never our aim, which is to astound and terrify you! We present acts both frightening and bizarre, acts you can find nowhere else in the world.

"Those who are easily scared should leave now," he warned. "I'm sure there are people who came tonight thinking this was a joke. Maybe they thought our freaks would be people in masks, or harmless misfits. This is not so! Every act you see tonight is real. Each performer is unique. And none are harmless."

That was the end of his speech and he walked offstage. Two pretty women in shiny suits came on next and unlocked the door of the Wolf Mans cage. A few people looked scared but nobody left.

The Wolf Man was yapping and howling when he first came out of the cage, until one of the ladies hypnotised him with her fingers. The other lady spoke to the crowd.

"You must be very quiet," she said in a foreign accent. "The Wolf Man will not be able to hurt you as long as we control him but a loud sound could wake him up, and then he would be deadly!"

When they were ready, they stepped down from the stage and walked the hypnotised Wolf Man through the theatre. His hair was a black colour and he walked with a slight stoop – from the hypnotism – fingers hanging down a few inches from his knees.

The ladies stayed by his side and warned to be quiet. They let you stroke his tail if you wanted, but you had to do it gently. Steve and Sophie rubbed his wolf tail as he went by but Kaida and I were afraid he might wake up and bite us, so we didn't.

"What did it feel like?" Kaida and I asked as quietly as we could.

"It was spiky," Steve replied.

"Like a hedgehog," Sophie added and she and Steve lifted their fingers to their noses and sniffed.

"It smells strange too, like burning rubber," they said together.

The Wolf Man and ladies were about halfway down the rows of seats when there was a big BANG! I don't know what made the noise, but suddenly the Wolf Man began roaring and he shoved the ladies away from him.

People screamed and those nearest him leapt from their seats and ran. One woman wasn't quick enough, and the Wolf Man leapt on her and dragged her to the ground. She was screaming fit to burst, but nobody tried to help her. He rolled her over on to her back and bared his teeth. She stuck a hand up to push him away, but he got his teeth on it and bit it off!

A couple of people fainted when they saw that and loads more began yelling and running. Then out of nowhere, Kurama appeared behind the Wolf Man and wrapped his arms around him. The Wolf Man struggled for a few seconds, but Kurama whispered something in his ear and he relaxed. While Kurama led him back to the stage, the women in the suits calmed down the crowd and told them to return to their seats.

While the crowd hesitated, the woman with bitten off hand went on screaming. Blood was pumping out of the end of her wrist, covering the ground and other people. Steve, Sophie, Kaida and I were staring at her, our mouths wide open, wondering if she was going to die.

Kurama returned from the stage, picked up the severed hand and gave a loud whistle. Two people in blue robes with hoods over their heads ran forward. They were short, not much bigger than mine and Kaida's little brother, but with thick arms and legs, and lots of muscles. Kurama sat the woman up and whispered something in her ear. She stopped screaming and sat still.

Kurama took hold of the wrist, then reached into his pocket and took out a small brown leather pouch. He opened it with his free hand and sprinkled a sparkly pink powder on to the bleeding wrist. Then he stuck the hand against it and nodded to the two people in the blue suits. They produced a pair of needles and loads on orange string. And then, to the amazement of everybody in the theatre, they started to stitch the hand back on to the wrist!

The people in blue robes stitched for five or six minutes. The woman didn't feel any pain, even though their needles were going in and out of her flesh, all the way around the wrist. When finished, they put their needles and unused thread away and returned to wherever they'd come from. Their hoods never slipped from their faces, so I couldn't tell if they were men or women. When they'd gone, Kurama let go of the woman's hand and stepped back.

"Move your fingers," he said. The woman stared at him blankly. "Move your fingers!" he said again, and this time she gave them a wiggle.

They moved!

Everybody gasped. The woman stared at the fingers as though she didn't believe they were real. She gave them another wiggle. The she stood and lifted the hand above her head. She shook it as hard as she could, and it was good as new! You could see the stitches but there was no more blood and the fingers seemed to be working fine.

"You will be ok," Kurama told her. "The stitches will fall out after a couple of days. It will be fine after that."

"Maybe that's not good enough!" someone shouted, and a big red-faced man stepped forward. "I'm her husband," he said, "and I say we should go to a doctor and then the police! You can't let a wild animal like that out into the crowd! What if he had bitten her head off?"

"Then she would be dead," Kurama said calmly.

"Listen, buster," the husband began, but Kurama interrupted.

"Tell me, sir," Kurama said, "where were you when the Wolf Man was attacking?"

"Me?" the man asked.

"Yes," Kurama said. "You are her husband. You were sitting beside her when the beast escaped. Why did you not leap to her rescue?"

"Well, I… There was no time… I couldn't… I wasn't…"

No matter what he said, the husband couldn't win, because there was only one true answer: he had been running away, looking after himself.

"Listen to me," Kurama said. "I gave fair warning. I said this show could be dangerous. This is not a nice, safe circus where nothing goes wrong. Mistakes can and do happen, and sometimes people end up a lot worse off than your wife. That's why this show is banned. That's why we must play in old theatres in the middle of night. Most of the time, things go smoothly and nobody gets hurt. But we cannot guarantee your safety."

Kurama turned around in a circle and seemed to look everybody in the eye while turning. "We cannot guarantee anybody's safety," he roared. "Another accident like this is unlikely but it could happen. Once again I say, if you are afraid, leave. Leave now, before it is too late!"

A few people did leave. But most stayed to see the rest of the show, even the woman who nearly lost her hand.

"Do you two want to go?" I asked Steve and Sophie, Kaida and I half-hoping they'd say yes. We were excited but scared as well.

"Are you crazy?" Steve asked.

"This is great! You two don't want to go, do you?" Sophie asked.

"No way," we lied, and each slapped on a shaky little smile.

If only we hadn't been so scared of looking like cowards! We could have left and everything would have been fine. But no, we had to act like strong women and sit it out to the end. If you only knew how many times we've wished since then that we'd fled with all the speed in our bodies and never looked back…

_Kaida_

As soon as Kurama had left the stage and we'd settled back into our seats, the second freak, Monkey D. Luffy, came on. He was more of a comedy act than a scary one, which was just what we needed to calm us down after the terrifying start. I happened to look over my shoulder while he was on, and noticed two of the blue-hooded people down on their knees, cleaning blood from the floor.

Luffy – he had asked us to call him just Luffy – was the skinniest man I'd ever seen. He was so skinny I was surprised we couldn't see his bones! There seemed to be no flesh on him. He would have been frightening, except he had a wide friendly smile.

Funny music played and he danced around the stage. He was wearing a red vest; jeans rolled up to just above the knee, sandals and a straw hat and looked so ridiculous that soon everybody was laughing. After a while, he stopped dancing and began stretching. He said he was a contortionist (somebody with bones like rubber, who can bend every which-way).

First, he tilted his head back so far, it looked like it had been cut off – he kept hold of his hat to make sure it stayed on his head. He turned around so we could see his upside-down face, then went on leaning backwards until his head was touching the floor! Then he put his free hand round the back of his legs and pulled his head through until it was sticking up in front of him. It looked like it was growing out of his stomach!

He got a huge round of clapping for that, after which he straightened up and began twisting his body like a curly-wurly straw! He kept twisting and twisting, five times around, until his bones began to creak from strain. He stood like that for a minute, then began to unwind really, really fast.

Once he had corrected him self, one of the ladies in the shiny suit came on stage grabbed Luffy's hand and then started to walk down the isle and his arm stretched out behind her! Luffy had not moved from his position on the stage and just continued to grin. He invited people to touch his stretched out arm and prove that it was real, a few people did and exclaimed – mostly in shock I think – that the arm was real as they could feel his bone when they pushed on the arm hard enough.

The lady soon let go of his arm and it shot back to its original length, the lady once again left back to the wings and Luffy hook a finger in his cheek and stretched it out so the crowd could see his back teeth and exclaimed – cheek still stretched out – that he was not a normal contortionist and that a more accurate description and title for him would be a rubber man. He then started to stretch his body to very unnatural lengths and in very unnatural ways.

The skinny man left the stage to shouts of more. But none of the freaks ever came back to do an encore.

After Monkey D. Luffy came Gluttony, and he was fat as Luffy was thin. I have to admit he wasn't as big as I expected – height wise he quite short. He had thick meaty arms, a large round stomach, a smallish round head and short legs – he wore an all black outfit and had a weird tattoo on both arms.

He waddled on to the stage with his right index finger in his mouth, when he came to edge of the stage and eyed those in the front row with a hungry look. I could see people getting slightly nervous – he looked like he wanted to eat them – but after a few minutes he laughed and went to the middle of the stage.

"Hello," he said. He had a nice voice, I don't really know how to describe it but it sounded nice. "My name is Gluttony, I am called this because I can eat anything and everything. The doctors were stunned and said I was a freak. That's why I joined this show and am here tonight."

The ladies who had hypnotised the Wolf Man came out with two trolleys full of food: cake, chips, hamburgers, packets of sweets and heads of cabbage. There was stuff there that I hadn't even seen before, never mind tasted.

"Yum-yum," Gluttony said. He pointed to a huge clock being lowered by ropes from above. It stopped about three metres above his head. "How long do you think it will take me to eat all this?" he asked, pointing to the food. "There will be a prize for the person who guesses closest."

"An hour!" somebody yelled.

"Forty-five minutes!" somebody else roared.

"Two hours, ten minutes and thirty-three seconds," another person shouted. Soon everybody was calling out. Kurai and I said an hour and three minutes. Steve and Sophie said twenty-nine minutes. The lowest guess was seventeen minutes.

When we were finished guessing, the clock started to tick and Gluttony started to eat. He ate like the wind. His arms moved so fast, you could hardly see them. His mouth didn't seem to close at all. He shovelled food in, swallowed and moved on – I don't even think he was chewing!

Everybody was amazed. I felt sick as I watched – I think Kurai did to, she looked paler than usual. Some people actually weresick!

Finally, Gluttony scoffed the last bun and the clock above his head stopped ticking.

Four minutes and fifty-six seconds_! _He'd eaten all the food in less than five minutes! I could hardly believe it – from look on Kurai's face she could hardly believe it either. It didn't seem possible, even for a man who claimed to be able to anything and everything.

"That was nice," Gluttony said, "but I could have done with dessert."

While we clapped and laughed, the ladies in shiny suits rolled the trolleys away and brought on a new one, packed with glass statues and forks and spoons and bits of metal junk.

"Before I begin," Gluttony said, "I must warn you not to try this at home! I can eat things which would choke and kill normal people. Do not try to copy me! If you do, you may die."

He began eating. He started with a couple of nuts and bolts, which he popped them into his mouth without blinking. After a few small handfuls he opened his mouth and we saw that the nuts and bolts were melting! As if acid had be poured onto them.

Next, he ate the glass statues. He licked the glass first, coating it in his saliva – we watched as the glass also started to melt – before he put it in his mouth and swallowed. Then he ate the spoons and forks. Biting into them as if they were made of icing – but we knew they were metal because banged them against the metal trolley before biting into them.

After that, he started to eat a long, thick, metal chain. Slurping it up like it was spaghetti, we could hear the metal sizzle as it came into contact with his saliva – some of the chain even started to drip as he put into his mouth! When he was done he stopped to catch his breath as his stomach rumbled before he let out a satisfied burp. He then told us how he was able to eat such things, is spit was like acid and could melt anything – he showed this by spitting onto the metal trolley and making a hole.

When Gluttony left the stage, Kurai and I thought nobody could top such an act.

We were wrong!

(A/N: so sorry it has taken me ages to update this story, but this chapter gave me some trouble as I had to change the acts to fit Luffy and Gluttony, the next chapter will probable give the same trouble but hopefully not as much. Thank you for reading and please review. Mata ne)


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